Physical origin of the anomalous temperature dependence of the 1S yellow exciton luminescence intensity in Cu2O

A simple model is presented to explain the minimum in the integrated intensity of the phonon-assisted 1S yellow exciton luminescence in Cu2O as a function of temperature. It is shown that this behavior is due to a minimum in the temperature-dependent exciton population lifetime. This model also predicts the temperature dependence of the time-resolved luminescence spectrum in Cu2O. © 1982 The American Physical Society.